A Fault-Tolerant Parallel Structure of Single-Phase Full-Bridge Rectifiers for a Wound-Field Doubly Salient Generator

The fault-tolerance design is widely adopted for high-reliability applications. In this paper, a parallel structure of single-phase full-bridge rectifiers (FBRs) (PS-SPFBR) is proposed for a wound-field doubly salient generator. The analysis shows the potential fault-tolerance capability of the PS-SPFBR over the common three-phase FBR. The normal no-load and loading operations are discussed, and the fault-tolerance ability is analyzed. A doubly salient generator prototype is built and tested; the machine is also modeled and simulated with the finite element method. The results obtained from simulation are in good agreement with that from the experiments under both normal no-load and loading operations. The impacts of a single-phase open-circuit fault have been discussed, and the fault-tolerance ability has been demonstrated.